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Saturday, August 7, 2010

preseason match report: Manchester City 2-0 Valencia CF

Valencia played Manchester city tonight in a quite interesting match depending for which side you root. Valencia were bad, really bad in the first half, they defended all the time, had almost no chances, no play in midfield and no attack. In one word they sucked.

Manchester City had all the ball possession, control and great chances. David Silva played his first match for City and he played really well, creating few chances for his new team mates. The first goal for Manchester City came from Barry after Boateng beat 3 Valencia defenders and managed to find Barry who positioned better than Miguel and easily scored.
The first half ended with Manchester City leading 1-0.
Unai Emery didn't make any changes at half time, while M. City made 3 changes as well as Silva and Tevez from the first half. The second half was played much in the same fashion, City dominated and Valencia only defended. There were few sporadic chances for Valencia coming mainly from Joaquin and Pablo, but nothing significant or particularly threatening.
Valencia did start to play better towards the 75th minute and Juan Mata was introduced close to the 80th minute mark. The side began to open up and attack more, with more control in midfield and more shots towards Manchester City goal. But it was too little too late I guess, as Valencia attacked they lost the ball and a quick counter attack from City saw Jo make it 2-0 for City.

Players Ratings:Moya - 7: Very secure at the goal, made a couple of good saves and showed he can be reliable.Miguel - 4: Defended poorly, was caught out of position on more than one occasion and didn't bring anything in attack.Navarro - 4: A poor performance, caught out of position and scrambling to catch up several times.Dealbert - 4: Similar to Navarro he was caught out of position, though did make a few decent tackles.Del Horno - 4 : The cross for the first goal came from his side, he was beaten a lot of times and didn't support the attack a bit.Tino Costa - 5: Practically defended all the time, he didn't link up well with Pablo, didn't make any significant passes, though defended decently.Topal - 5.5: Was moving around the field quite a bit, good in defensive duties, but he as all his team mates couldn't bring anything to attack or control the ball in the midfield.Ever Banega - 6: Tried hard to do something and to spread the ball to his fellow players, but just couldn't really do it. Had almost no support from his midfield teammate.Joaquin - 5.5: Lost way too many balls in the first half and wasted way too many balls. He improved in the second half and even created one or two chances but nothing really noteworthy.Pablo - 5.5: Run like hell all night long, crossed the ball decently, linked up well with the midfield and even had a shot on goal, but without much support it wasn't really meaningful.Soldado - 5: Mostly anonymous, had few decent balls forwarded to him, but failed to make them into goals.